Hello from Cleveland! We're excited to be here and on behind-the-scenes blog patrol for you again. We flew in today with a contingent from the Skating Club of Boston: Stephen Carriere, Katrina Hacker, Ross Miner, Brittney Rizo, Peter Max Dion, coaches Suna Murray and Peter Johansson, and a whole bunch of valiant moms.

The skaters had to take their skates out of their bags to go through security, and they (the skates, that is) looked very interesting lined up in five trays waiting to be X-rayed. In the end, the skating bags were too big for the very small plane and got loaded into baggage as we boarded up the stairs. Ross's mom, who is a travel agent, didn't want to risk checking the skates at the last minute, so she took them out of the bag. Ross had them under his eye for the whole flight, while he played Scrabble with Peter Max and Katrina. He scored 36 points with QUIT, by the way.

Coach Peter just came back from the Canadian championships yesterday, after sitting on a plane in Toronto for six hours, due to a big snowstorm in Boston (14 inches)!

Carriere was excited to see Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir's free dance from the Canadian championships last weekend, after hearing all about it. He made some predictions for the dance event at the Olympics, in fact... But we can't disclose that information yet.

In the end, everyone's luggage made it, skates and all.

No more pink Hummer

Katy Taylor isn't competing here, but you may recall that when the 2006 Four Continents champion was 16, her greatest desire was to earn enough money to buy a pink Hummer. We've always wondered if she got one, so we asked her! Here's what she said:

"No, I never got the pink Hummer, and I don't really want it anymore. I drive my grandma's white Buick now. It's very comfortable and big, however I hate it when it's time to park. I'm sure others hate it too when they try to park next to me."

Katy was very into pink back in 2006. What about now? Nope! "No other wishes for pink things! My roommate goes overboard with pink. She even got pink Q-tips once. I don't really like pink anymore."

The summer before Katy's senior year in high school, persistent injuries led to a break from skating. "It led to me realizing that if I wanted to skate again it needed to be for love. I never actually quit, but I needed to find myself in the sport again. When I was taking my 'break' I never even skated once for an entire year. I was entirely burnt out. I'm slowly starting to find myself, though."

Katy started college last semester. At the moment, she's doing some coaching and skating again, and living in an apartment for the first time. "I didn't think living on my own would keep me so busy!" she said. "At the moment I do want to return to competition but I will have to see where I am with everything a little bit further down the road. I'm just trying to take each day one at a time. My plans change every day with everything. I heard that's normal for a teenager just out of high school though."

Living on her own led to her New Year's resolution: "My new year's resolution: Don't get so far behind on doing the dishes! I didn't realize I was so messy and didn't care until I moved out on my own. Next year I will make a bigger one... Don't get so far behind on cleaning my room!"

We tried to get Katy to make a prediction for the ladies competition this week, but she was too diplomatic. "Nationals should be very interesting this year! I'm going to miss seeing all my friends, and I wish them the best of luck! Hm, my prediction for the ladies is that the rankings will have a major change from short to long. It will be hard watching it [on TV], but at the same time I'll be happy under my blanket at home rather than starting a long program in front of a packed arena."

That's all for tonight! We will be back tomorrow with the wrap-up from day two of the Championships. Dress warmly!
Sarah and Drew